Can you imagine being one of Cory Ness' high-school buddies and being a motorcycle enthusiast? Just think about what it would feel like customizing your first bike, riding it to school, and then having Cory pull up on one of the bikes that he built under the tutelage of his father Arlen. It would be enough to either make you want to sell your bike and take up another hobby, or step up and hone your skills so that you could hang with the likes of the Ness clan.
Dante can still recall when he bought his first stock bike and began removing all of the stuff it didn't need, bolting on items to customize its look. He showed it to Cory and got some unexpected advice. Cory told him, "If you want something different, build it; otherwise you'll end up with a stock bike and a box full of parts." Those words stuck with Dante, and he ended up selling off his warmed-over stock H-D and started on his second bike, a ground-up project.
Dante found that he really enjoyed building bikes from concept to completion. And after selling that first ground-up project bike three weeks after he built it, he knew he wanted to something a little more challenging for his next project. After looking through some books and magazines, he came up with the idea of building a bike with somewhat of a theme. As an admirer of the early Corvettes, Dante decided to follow that theme with the raised rear fenders, vents on the side of the tank, and classic chrome trim between the downtubes of the frame. Heck, Tony at Danny Gray even got into the spirit of things and found some Stingray that matched the color scheme and incorporated it into the seat.
Dante found most of the parts he needed in the Arlen Ness catalog, like the chassis, wheels, sheetmetal, handlebars, hand controls, foot controls, headlight, taillight, and triple trees. He packed the chassis with a TP Engineering 124ci Evolution-style powerplant that Tony from Arlen Ness assembled, along with a Baker six-speed transmission, and connected them together with a Barnett primary drive and clutch. Then Bob "Munn" Monroe was called in to massage the sheetmetal, build the custom trim, and even fabricate the trim pieces that fit between the downtubes of the frame. And once all of the welding, grinding, and general fabrication was finished, much of the bike was boxed up and taken over to High Luster Plating and Polishing in Hayward, California. Even more of the bike was delivered to Carl Brouhard, where it was treated to a fresh coat of candy apple red and pearl white and a tough coat of clear to protect it all.
Dante collected all of the parts when they were finished and proceeded to assemble everything into a bike that is very close to his original concept of what the finished product would look like. Now, whether he can hang onto this one for longer than three weeks so that he can actually put some miles on it and enjoy it remains to be seen. But whether he sells it or keeps it, we're pretty sure this won't be the last you hear of Dante when it comes to building custom bikes.